Chapter Summaries

Qin Xa left the Abyss Campaign with Perturabo to address Olympia’s rebellion, while Perturabo grew furious over the uprising and ordered the Iron Warriors to slaughter the rebels and everyone who supported them. The fleet reached the edge of the Eye of Terror, and Qin Xa worried that no one would be able to stop Perturabo from massacring Olympia.

• Qin Xa announced that he would leave the Abyss Campaign to destroy the three artifacts, and Angron suggested he also help resolve Nostramo’s problems.
• Perturabo argued with Curze about Olympia and Nostramo, then learned that Olympia had rebelled and decided to return there.
• Angron arranged for Perturabo to travel with Qin Xa, and Perturabo left most of the Fourth Legion’s warships behind in the Abyss Campaign.
• Several months later, Perturabo demanded that the Iron Warriors explain Olympia’s rebellion, then ordered them to destroy the cities and kill every rebel and supporter.
• Qin Xa worried that Perturabo would massacre Olympia without opposition and decided to make preparations.

Perturabo learned that Caliphone had been captured during Olympia’s rebellion and sent Qin Xa to rescue her. After Qin Xa brought her to the Iron Blood, Perturabo prepared to punish the Olympians.

• Qin Xa told Perturabo that Olympia’s Governor was dead and Caliphone and her brothers were held by the rebels, prompting Perturabo to denounce them and ask Qin Xa to rescue Caliphone.
• Qin Xa challenged Perturabo over his anger and his conflict with Angron, then left him to decide how to deal with Olympia.
• Kamas and Varius led a ten-man Librarian squad to Olympia with Qin Xa, while Osiris proudly posed in his homemade armor and received a White Knight medal from Kamas.
• Qin Xa and the Librarians fought through the fortress dungeon, disabled its defenses, and found Caliphone imprisoned with her Achilles tendons severed.
• Qin Xa brought Caliphone through a portal to Perturabo, who ordered the Olympians punished and set out to deliver that punishment.

Perturabo led the Iron Warriors in a brutal assault on Olympia, then confronted the rebellion’s causes and recognized that his rage did not mean he could truly destroy the planet. After the rebels surrendered, he imposed martial law and decided to stay on Olympia to redesign it.

• Perturabo personally led the Iron Warriors’ attack, broke into the palace he had built, and killed the rebel leader who had used Caliphone to threaten him.
• The Iron Warriors burned the palace as they cleared it, while Perturabo watched Olympia burn and ordered that the rebels be killed.
• Perturabo learned the White Knight Master had left the system, then imagined Angron confronting him with the truth that his rule and recruitment had made Olympia a living hell.
• Perturabo realized he could not carry out his threat to decimate Olympia, acknowledging that his heart had long since ceased to be iron.
• After the rebels surrendered, Perturabo ordered martial law, executions for rebel officers, and a continued stay on Olympia to redesign the planet.

Perturabo visited his injured foster sister Caliphone, treated her wounds, and listened as she pleaded for mercy for Olympia. He planned the city’s punishment and reconstruction, then reflected on how Caliphone and his own past might be weaknesses as he continued his work.

• Perturabo left Olympia under Iron Warriors martial law and returned to the Iron Blood, where he found Caliphone badly wounded.
• Perturabo treated Caliphone’s infected wounds and repaired her severed tendons, while she asked about Qin Xa and urged him not to punish the servants.
• Caliphone argued that Olympia’s rebellion had roots in the people’s grievances, but Perturabo intimidated her and insisted she had no right to lecture him.
• Perturabo decided the Olympians would be flogged and given a chance to submit, ended recruitment solely from Olympia, and began planning the city’s reconstruction.
• Perturabo realized Caliphone had become a weakness that rebels could exploit, recalled carrying Angron during the Battle of Ullanor, and continued drafting his plans.

Qin Xa’s fleet reached Usol and discovered it had crossed into the 40th Millennium, where Imperial Navy forces were under attack by a heretic fleet. As the battle began, another fleet led by a chapter master named Jonah arrived, and Qin Xa introduced himself as the White Knight Master.

• Qin Xa learned from Angron that Olympia’s rebellion had not been manipulated by the Word Bearers and discussed how Perturabo’s adoptive family had kept the planet stable.
• The Human Historical Research Society located the Heart of Plague on Usol, and Qin Xa brought his fleet out of the Immaterium into a heavily populated star system.
• An Imperial Navy patrol officer told Qin Xa that it was the 998th year of the 40th Millennium and that heretics had defeated the main fleet and were targeting Usol.
• Qin Xa ordered the Captain and Tethys to coordinate with the Navy and search Usol for the Heart of Plague.
• A fleet of grotesque living ships attacked Usol, and the Librarian fleet joined the Imperial Navy patrol fleet in battle.
• A second fleet arrived under White Knights chapter master Jonah, who warned Qin Xa not to steal his White Knight as well.

Qin Xa and Jonah led their forces to defend Ursor from Typhus’s Death Guard, whose plague zombies advanced through poisonous Spores. As the battle began, Qin Xa identified the plague warriors’ protection as psychic power supplied by a single individual.

• Biological warships spread poisonous Spores across Ursor and landed ground forces before withdrawing, while the clouds dissolved Imperial orbital weapons.
• Jonah identified the invaders as Typhus and the Death Guard, and Qin Xa ordered ground forces to Ursor to retrieve the Heart of Pestilence.
• Qin Xa and his Librarians teleported to the front lines, where they joined Jonah and more than three hundred White Knights defending the excavation site.
• Qin Xa decided to act under the authority of the Ordo Malleus rather than claim the White Knights as his successors, and told Jonah’s chapter to hold the line.
• After the bell rang seven times, plague zombies and Death Guard warriors emerged from the poisonous fog and came under artillery and sniper fire.
• Qin Xa judged that the Death Guard warriors were using one person’s psychic power, while Jonah questioned his explanation and then considered it.

Qin Xa helped turn back the Plague Marines and Plague Zombies after Typhus fell and a psychic Dreadnought joined the battle. The Dreadnought revealed that its occupant, Chief Librarian Instructor Kamas of the World Eaters White Knights, recognized Qin Xa as White Knight Master.

• Qin Xa left the command post and confronted Typhus as the toxic fog and plague assault spread across the defenders’ lines.
• A shift in the Eye of Terror’s unstable temporal structure made the combatants vanish and reappear, and Qin Xa’s lingering psychic attack weakened Typhus before Qin Xa killed him.
• Qin Xa rallied the Librarians and White Knights as a psychic Dreadnought arrived and destroyed more than half the enemy force with a single strike.
• Jonah explained that an ancient Librarian from the Legion era slept inside the Dreadnought, while Qin Xa and Varius wondered whether the occupant might be their ancestor.
• The Dreadnought knelt before Qin Xa, and Kamas identified himself as Chief Librarian Instructor of the World Eaters White Knights and paid his respects to the White Knight Master.

Qin Xa learned from Kamas how the White Knights had survived the Great Heresy and discovered that Angron was still alive ten thousand years later. As time collapsed around the Heart of Plague, she sent a psychic bomb to destroy it, entrusted Kamas with a keepsake for Angron, and left Usol after hearing the Emperor’s warning about the future.

• Kamas recounted his scattered experiences during the Great Heresy, including encounters with traitor legions, Dantiok, Typhus, and Qin Xa.
• A White Knights warrior told Qin Xa that Angron was alive in the future, serving in the Ultramar sector alongside the Primarch and Regent.
• Kamas explained that the White Knights had come under the Primarch’s orders to help destroy the Heart of Plague, and Qin Xa ordered Varius to deploy the psychic bomb she had left behind.
• As time grew unstable, Kamas ordered Jonah to evacuate Usol’s people through the Webway while Qin Xa gave Kamas a Nucerian ornament to deliver to Angron.
• Before vanishing, Kamas relayed the Emperor’s warning that the future was uncertain and should not be trusted blindly, and Qin Xa led the Librarians away from Usol.

Qin Xa considered how the future might be changed, then set course for Perditus to retrieve the Tuchulcha Engine. After finding Gusa’s recorded message in the Immaterium, he learned that Gusa hoped to free the Greenskins from their imposed degeneration by fighting Chaos, while Gusa arrived too late to find the Heart of Plagues and continued his search.

• Qin Xa told Varius and Tethys that Mortarion’s foretold betrayal might still be prevented, since the future could change.
• Qin Xa ordered the fleet to Perditus to recover the Tuchulcha Engine and instructed the Captain to prepare a crew to operate it.
• Qin Xa found a sphere in the Immaterium containing Gusa’s message and asked Kang whether Gusa could achieve Greenskin atavism by fighting Chaos.
• Kang judged Gusa’s plan unlikely to work and reminded Qin Xa that Gusa was already powerful enough to fight alongside him.
• Gusa arrived at the ruined system where the Heart of Plagues had been destroyed, found no battle or Chaos enemies, and led his fleet back into the Immaterium to continue the search.
• Super Little Qin released another glowing sphere into the Immaterium, expecting Qin Xa to find it.

Qin Xa retrieved the Tuchulcha Engine from Peditus and brought it aboard the White Knight, where Tethys began overseeing its secure use. He then spoke with Angron about the Abyss Campaign and the future, and agreed to bring Vulkan back from Terra.

• Qin Xa and a Librarian squad teleported into the Tuchulcha Engine’s sealed chamber on Peditus, removed the engine and the boy connected to it, and transported them to the White Knight.
• Qin Xa told Tethys that the engine could enable fast, stable travel through Immaterium storms and ordered him to keep its existence secret.
• The Tuchulcha Engine moved the fleet to the 92-22 system, demonstrating its power to the Captain, Tethys, and the engineering team.
• Qin Xa contacted Angron, who reported that the Abyss Campaign had ended and described Horus’s efforts to guard against Chaos’s influence.
• Qin Xa told Angron what he had seen while destroying the Heart of Pestilence, and Angron said the future was still changeable.
• Angron asked Qin Xa to bring Vulkan back, and Qin Xa agreed to retrieve him from Terra.

Qin Xa learned from Eldrad Uslan that Erebus was seeking an ancient device on an Interex border world that could blur the boundary between reality and the Immaterium, and decided to destroy it before Erebaty could use it against Horus. Horus had already gone to the Interex, where a Warp storm trapped him and his sons as unrest erupted outside the governor’s residence.

• The Lord of Fire arrived at Belis Corona early after Eldrad Uslan guided his fleet through the Webway, and Vulkan described the Emperor’s Webway project as crude but functional.
• Uslan told Qin Xa that the Harlequins had traced Erebus’s search for a War in Heaven device on an Interex border world, and explained that Erebus was Erebaty’s anchor in realspace.
• Qin Xa judged Uslan’s warning likely true, agreed to destroy the device, and decided to find Horus; Vulkan said Horus had left Terra after challenging the Imperial Council over the sterilization of the Interex.
• Qin Xa sent his decision to Angron, and Vulkan agreed to bring half his sons along as the fleets set course for the Interex.
• Horus and Loken, Torgaddon, Abaddon, and Aximand reached the Interex aboard a Gunship, but a Warp storm had cut off travel and astropathic communications.
• Horus landed at the governor’s residence amid street unrest and remembered his fear of Tull, the mortal administrator of the border world.

Horus confronted Governor Kreun over the Interex world's decline and the sterilization order, then faced Tull, who blamed him for the Interex people’s suffering and used an anti-Chaos weapon against him. As Erebus approached the fallen Horus, Qin Xa arrived, and Erebus cut his own throat.

• Horus confronted Kreun about the ruined world and the sterilization order, then Abaddon killed Kreun after he vomited on Horus.
• Horus tried to calm the angry Interex crowd, but the Soldiers opened fire after someone threw a Molotov cocktail; Horus stopped them when he saw Tull and chased him into an alley.
• Tull told Horus that the Interex people had imprisoned and condemned him, then activated an Eldar-designed weapon that vaporized him and struck Horus.
• Erebus approached the fallen Horus, but Abaddon shielded Torgaddon while the Four Kings Council opened fire on Erebus without effect.
• Qin Xa entered the alley and challenged Erebus, who silently slit his own throat with his crimson sword.

Qin Xa rescued Horus from Erebus and explained that Horus had only suffered a minor wound to his soul. After recovering, Horus ordered a trial for those behind the forced sterilization of Interex Xenos and decided to replace Imperial bureaucrats with Space Marines, while the threat Erebus posed remained unresolved.

• Qin Xa told the Mournival that Horus's soul was merely injured, revealed that he had reached the Interex through the Webway, and said their departure depended on Horus.
• Horus woke days later in anguish over Tull's photograph and ordered Abaddon to put those responsible for forced sterilization on trial before the Interex.
• Horus met Qin Xa and the Mournival, learned that Erebus had orchestrated the Interex turmoil, and heard that the Interex could not detect Erebus's Chaos allegiance.
• Qin Xa persuaded Horus that the Interex governor might have become corrupt without outside influence by recounting how Angron removed Nuceria's corrupt Archon.
• Horus decided that Space Marines would gradually replace Imperial bureaucrats, and told his sons to keep Erebus's connection to the crisis secret.
• Qin Xa said he and Uslan would handle the ancient device Uslan wanted destroyed, while Horus was told to stay safe from Erebus.

Qin Xa and Uslan entered an Old Ones artifact that could erase the boundary between reality and the Immaterium, only to discover Erebus had activated it. After destroying Erebus’s current body, they prepared to unleash Qin Xa’s psychic power against the device, leaving Uslan to guard Horus.

• Qin Xa and Uslan entered the hidden chamber and found the ancient device already warming up, having summoned the warp storm.
• Erebus appeared and claimed the Gods could use the device and would ensure Horus became The Emperor’s enemy.
• Qin Xa dismissed Erebus’s boasts and blasted him into snowflakes with lightning.
• Uslan explained that they could destroy the psychic technology by striking it with overwhelming psychic force, and asked Qin Xa to trust him enough to influence his emotions.
• Qin Xa opened his senses to Uslan’s influence, and Uslan teleported away to protect Horus while Qin Xa prepared to act.

Qin Xa’s grief over an illusion of Angron and the Gladiators’ deaths unleashed a psychic shriek that destroyed the Old Ones’ device and caused disturbances across the Imperium. On the Luna Wolves’ flagship, Erebus learned that his death could also kill his evil counterpart, then shot himself to stop him.

• Qin Xa witnessed Uslan’s illusion of Mortarion killing Angron and the Gladiators, and Angron’s soul asked him to take revenge.
• Qin Xa’s anguish erupted into a psychic shriek that shattered the illusion and device, dispersed Immaterium storms, disrupted ships, and triggered strange cold and psychic awakenings across the Imperium.
• Qin Xa restrained himself from harming the Librarians, escaped the space, and resolved that Erebus had failed to corrupt Horus again.
• Abaddon freed Erebus to move around the Luna Wolves’ flagship, and the two sparred until Abaddon angrily revealed that Erebus and his evil counterpart had once been one person divided into good and evil.
• Erebus learned that his death would also kill his counterpart, took Abaddon’s Bolter pistol, and shot himself in the temple.

Horus, Abaddon, and Qin Xa discussed the danger of killing Erebus while the Olena Sisters operated to save him. Erebus remained comatose, leaving the identity of Chaos’s next jointly chosen pawn unknown, and Horus prepared to meet with the primarchs and The Emperor before returning to the World Eaters.

• The Olena Sisters operated on Erebus while Qin Xa used psychic power to keep his soul in his body, and they warned that he might awaken emotionless after days, months, or years.
• Abaddon defended driving Erebus to suicide, but Horus argued that Erebus’s kindness made him a safeguard against Erebaty and that Chaos could choose another dangerous pawn.
• Qin Xa explained that the Four Gods had jointly chosen Erebaty, so only one person of Erebaty’s type would be controlled while Erebus remained unconscious.
• Horus said he would protect the primarchs from corruption by avoiding Chaos-tainted battlefronts and watching for their obsessions, while Qin Xa urged him to stay cautious and contact him if needed.
• Horus agreed to attend a meeting with the primarchs and The Emperor before returning to the World Eaters, and Qin Xa warned him to take care of himself.

Qin Xa joined the Emperor and the primarchs for a council about the Great Crusade, the Webway, and their plans for the future. After the meeting, the Emperor warned that Kor Phaeron could serve Chaos while Erebus remained dormant, and feared what that meant for Horus.

• Qin Xa gathered the primarchs in the Emperor’s new council chamber, where Perturabo told Angron about rebuilding Olympia and Magnus said Number Eleven might cure his sons’ mutation.
• The Emperor reported that the Webway project was progressing smoothly, then ordered Perturabo to turn Olympia into a fortress world; Perturabo refused, leaving the dispute unresolved.
• The Emperor asked what the primarchs would do after the Great Crusade, and Qin Xa said he would keep promoting Astartes rule across the Imperium while his brothers shared their own plans.
• After the council ended, the Emperor asked whether Erebus was alive, then said Kor Phaeron would serve Chaos until Erebus awakened.
• Qin Xa suggested Horus might avoid corruption while Erebus remained dormant, but the Emperor said that possibility frightened him.

Kor Phaeron found the City of Truth on Lothan, where three evil silhouettes promised him power if he brought Lorgar to them. After returning to the Legion, he persuaded Lorgar to leave for Lothan with him, while Hermit departed to receive the White Knight Master.

• Kor Phaeron and his servant found the ancient City of Truth and entered its black temple.
• Kor Phaeron and his servant heard a voice recount the God-Emperor’s history and learned that the Word Bearers were not the first believers.
• Three evil silhouettes promised Kor Phaeron eternal life, power, and control if he brought Lorgar to them.
• Lorgar ordered Hermit to receive the White Knight Master and went to welcome Kor Phaeron back to the flagship.
• Kor Phaeron urged Lorgar to leave the war and visit Lothan, and Lorgar agreed to go with him at once.

Lorgar discovered that Kor Phaeron had brought him to an ancient temple to sacrifice him to the Chaos Gods, and the two fought with psychic power. Lorgar killed Kor Phaeron and left the temple as daemons gathered around him but dared not approach.

• Lorgar and Kor Phaeron entered the blackstone temple, where Kor Phaeron heard the Chaos Gods praise him and prepared to offer Lorgar as a sacrifice.
• Lorgar revealed that the Gods had shown him another Destiny in which Kor Phaeron and Erebus corrupted him, then confronted Kor Phaeron as an enemy.
• Kor Phaeron and Lorgar fought with psychic power, and Lorgar overcame him as the Gods watched without intervening.
• Lorgar pinned Kor Phaeron and killed him with his warhammer after the human-skin book at Kor Phaeron's waist revealed the truth.
• Lorgar burned the book with psychic flames and walked through the city as Warp Creatures and daemons appeared but kept their distance.

Qin Xa rushed to Lorgar to stop Kor Phaeron from corrupting the primarch, but learned that Lorgar had already killed him after surviving a Chaos sacrifice plot. Lorgar remained convinced the Emperor had aided him, while Qin Xa departed after warning him about false miracles and receiving the Emperor’s order to inspect Number Eleven.

• Qin Xa learned that Lorgar and Kor Phaeron were on Lorgar and prepared a psychic bomb in case they had been corrupted.
• Lorgar returned to the flagship, and Qin Xa confirmed through Psychic Sight that Chaos had not corrupted him.
• Lorgar told Qin Xa that he had killed Kor Phaeron, who had tried to sacrifice him to the Chaos Gods in an ancient temple.
• Lorgar described a force he believed came from the Emperor aiding him, and Qin Xa warned him that miracles might come from other gods.
• Qin Xa affirmed that the Emperor was a god, strengthening Lorgar’s certainty, then left the prayer chamber.
• The Emperor told Qin Xa to let Lorgar believe as long as he did not side with Chaos and ordered him to inspect Number Eleven, bringing him to Terra if necessary.